BIOGRAPHY
Recent highlights include the Performance Prize awarded by the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music in Spain (INAEM), and the release of his first recording project Five Verses with the 4 times Grammy Award nominated label, IBS Classical. This album highlights the relationship between music and poetry through the pairing of saxophone and piano or saxophone and electronics.
Born in Toledo, Carlos Zaragoza is part of the new generation of Spanish saxophonists, among whom he stands out for his distinctive artistic personality and strong commitment to contemporary repertoire.
An award winner in several international competitions, he received the 1st Prize at the Andorra SaxFest Competition (2018), the 2nd Prize at the International Adolphe Sax Competition in Paris (2018), the 1st Prize of INAEM and the Colegio de España in Paris (2019), as well as the 1st Prize of Honour at the Léopold Bellan International Competition (2020). These distinctions are part of a solo career that has led him to perform in France, Spain, Slovenia, Italy, Belgium and South Korea, in venues and festivals such as the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Auditorio de Zaragoza, l'Opéra de Massy and the Festival France Musique Occitanie Montpellier. He is also regularly invited to perform on radio, notably on France Musique in the programme Générations France Musique, as well as on Radio Nacional de España in the programme Música Viva. In this context, he recorded his first album with pianist Kishin Nagai, Five Verses, released by IBS Classical, conceived for saxophone and piano or electronics as a suite of “songs without words” from the 20th and 21st centuries. The album has been critically acclaimed and awarded the “Melómano de Oro” distinction by Melómano magazine.
Alongside this, his chamber music activity is notably developed within the Gaman Ensemble, a saxophone quartet dedicated to contemporary creation. With this ensemble, he pursues an international career, including a tour in South Korea at the Korea National University of Arts. The quartet collaborates with the Embassy of Spain in France and filmmaker Loïc Edgard Guilpain, developing projects that bring into dialogue French aesthetics and Iberian creation from the 20th and 21st centuries. With Gaman Ensemble, he recorded a self-titled album, released by IBS Classical and also awarded the “Melómano de Oro” distinction.
Driven by an interest in stylistic diversity and a desire to expand the possibilities of the saxophone, he collaborates with composers such as Luis Naón, Félix Ibarrondo, Orlando Bass, Vincent David, Thierry Escaich and Oriol Saladrigues, through various commissions and premieres. In the same spirit, he has published an arrangement of Les Folies d’Espagne by Marin Marais with Henry Lemoine Editions, contributing to the enrichment and renewal of the instrument’s repertoire.
Committed to teaching, Carlos Zaragoza is Professor of Saxophone at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón (CSMA) and at the Conservatoire Jean-Baptiste Lully in Puteaux. He is regularly invited to give masterclasses in higher education institutions and to serve as a jury member in international competitions, including the Andorra SaxFest, Monopoli Saxophone Festival, as well as in conservatories such as CRR Versailles and CRR 93.
Carlos is embassador of Henri Selmer Paris Saxophones, he is supported by the Tarrazi and Meyer foundations.